Sud Aviation
Sud Aviation was a
French state-owned
aircraft manufacturer, originating from the merger of
SNCASE (
Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du sud-est) and
SNCASO (
Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du sud-ouest) on
March 1,
1957. Both companies had themselves been formed from smaller privately owned corporations that had been nationalized into six regional design and manufacturing pools just prior to
World War II.
SNCASE built a line of aircraft including a passenger airliner, the
Languedoc, and a
fighter, the
Vampire. The Vampire was a British
De Havilland design built under license, locally designated as the
Mistral.
Looking to break out of their limited licensing-based market, in 1951 SNCASE started the design of a new jet-powered airliner which would eventually evolve into the
Caravelle. The
Caravelle used British engines and the nose and tail design from the
De Havilland Comet, but was otherwise a new design. One pioneering feature was the mounting of the engines at the rear fuselage, thereby reducing cabin noise. Production started in 1958, by which time the market-leading Comet had suffered a series of in-air breakups and had been withdrawn from service. The
Caravelle did not suffer this design flaw and thus remained the only production jet design in the mid-range market until the launch of the
Douglas DC-9, securing a very successful career with sales all over Europe and even 20 in the United States.
At this point the merger with SNCASO occurred to form Sud Aviation. The new firm then started on the design of a
supersonic transport version of the
Caravelle, known as the
Super-Caravelle. However, the projected cost of the project was so high that Sud Aviation, at the direction of the French and British governments, formed a consortium with
BAC in November 1962 to merge their design and production efforts to create the
Concorde.
Sud Aviation merged with
Nord Aviation in
1970 to form the
Aérospatiale company. Aérospatiale formed several large-scale international consortia, e.g., with
British Aerospace and
MBB to form
Airbus, and ultimately merged into European aerospace company
EADS in
2000.
*
Sud Aviation page on
AviaFrance.
*
SUD AVIATION AND AÉROSPATIALE on
US Centennial of Flight.
